I had never seen any of these performers live before. We had always been too broke to ever see NKOTB in concert, ever. Nor get a fancy Tshirt if I was privileged to go to a Concert.

So Kathleen and I waited in the world's longest line to get a T-shirt.

We got matching T-shirts. Because we haven't done that in a while. Also, waiting in line wasn't too terrible because I had so much fun people watching. #GeekingOut

Would it be terrible to hunt them down at a different concert and go again?!

Oh yes, we're ready now!

And yes, I'm totally sporting my vintage hypercolor t-shirt that I pulled out of the bag of stuff I want to make into a quilt, but haven't yet. Don't think I will with this one. <3

Beautiful lights.

So, there was this app that NKOTB recommended. It didn't want to cooperate on my phone, but in theory, it turned on the flashlight for all participants. It worked for Kathleen. I just opted to take a photo of everyone else's.

They gussied up the Stage so it looked like a Mix Tape.

Brilliant!

The lights and confetti, how fun is this?!

It really was the most amazing concert.

Debbie Gibson sat down at the piano for her second performance, and started playing Lost in your eyes. At which point, Joey McIntyre came out and began singing with her.

And I cried.

It was the most awesome duet ever.

Even though I couldn't really hear it well, I still cried.

So truthfully, the sound kind of sucked. Can you even tell which songs these are?

I don't know if you can, or if not. I could, because they've been driven into my bones.

That's what growing up in the 80s and 90s was.

True great music driven into our bones.

And half of them came back to town on this night.

So freaking awesome.

I didn't go to any concerts between Weird Al and the Monkees in 1987, and John Denver in 1993.

I was never cool, I never got invited, and we were broke.

That's a crucial thing for a teenager to miss. I don't doubt I missed out.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

It's a New Year, another year for great New Year's Resolutions. I always get a little overwhelmed when thinking about what I want to do in the new year. It never fails I fizzle out come spring. This year I decided to participate in my Young Living Leadership Support Team Challenges for January. I can commit to a month.

One diamond leader is doing a Water Challenge. I've done this before... but always in summer. I'd not thought of upping my water intake in winter. Rather brilliant really. I know the effects. I guess I'm so dehydrated, I'm just not thinking that something as simple as water is what I need. But I do. So I am all in. In fact, I just pulled my decorated jug out of the cabinet, didn't add anything fancy. I've done this before, set the numeric goal, drink half of my body weight in ounces of water per day. Gotta tell you, after hopping on the scale this morning, that number was HIGH. But I've been eating Holiday style for days, and my body is done, I just need to stay home. And that is the Plan. Luckily, we have little going on, so staying home and drinking and peeing all the time sounds Great.

It's refreshing, and balancing to the blood sugar, while supporting the whole body during weight loss.

So, I thought I'd start my day with this.

130 ounces is a Lot of Water.

Plus, I've been sick.

Even my tissues are talking to me.

I'm tired of being sick and tired. I'm weaning off the prednisone and I feel terrible.

I lost my voice right after Christmas. Drinking and peeing all this toxic crud out of my body sounds Fantastic.

The other YL leader Challenge is a Ningxia Red challenge. That one won't be hard for me to hit, as I've been drinking it daily since I started feeling crummy anyway. I don't have stash enough to get all 5 of us going on it. I should've started drinking it in November to keep my immune system supported through the season, maybe I wouldn't have gotten sick at all. Who knows?

I want to jump start my YL business again, I want to get off my duff, I want to take more photos, (thus starting the count again), and I want to do these drinking challenges.

Hopefully, the combination of these liquids, drinking good things will lead to getting healthier, and moving my butt will help me lose weight too. These are all my New Years goals. Wish me luck!

Monday, December 24, 2018

The weirdest thing just happened. I got fired from my previous gig as #1 Elf for Santa. The presence of #1 son was requested to act as #1 Elf. WOW. I was told I could go to bed. Is it because I've been sick? Is it because #1 son is now 13 and such a great helper with a better spine and more energy than me? Probably both. Still, I have to stay awake a little longer to get my replacement off his flush, so I thought I'd get started with a blog story of our day. It has been a Wild One!
Being sick on Christmas Eve is something I'm not used to. Not having a voice to sing Christmas carols at church also stinks. I am not making the most of these holidays. I like to sit back and relax when we're on vacation because I want to, not because I have to. And lately, my energy level is so low, I have to.
Still, today, we made a good dent in vacationing and enjoying some festive holiday time together.

A Snappy Dresser.

So we started the day, fairly typically, with yelling to get dressed, insanity as we try to coordinate Holiday fashions. Jacob picked out his pants. Vintage Awesome. They belonged to Eric, probably Ryan, and or Karl too. My mother in law saved a bin of awesome old clothes from her boys to give to my boys. And we're almost through it. This is one of the last pieces to survive. And Jacob rocked it today. He learned to snap, and was dancy pantsy all over the house.

We voted him, "Best Pants" of the day.

Ryan and Amy hosted Christmas this year. And it was so nice.

Maybe it was just that they made it so easy, a buffet of appetizers, and kids playing happily with eachother for a while before we even opened presents.

I got to catch up with my girls and love on my nephews.

The boys were content wherever there was a screen.

At least they were getting along.

For a brief moment, they were all quiet, while presents were distributed.

Then suddenly, the flurry began, and they all opened with a vengance.

Then it got crazy.

I practiced panoramic shots of all of it, which surprisingly turned out well. Amazing considering how everyone was moving while I was shooting.

Bryce loved his Pikachu.

If you ask Cole, he will tell you that Bryce is 2, and doesn't talk that's why he does First Steps.

Yep. Since 2 of our 3 did that, we completely understand. But Bryce is beginning to really communicate. Sure, it's not always in English. But he made his thoughts known when he opened his present from us. And it made my day, he hit the box and said Pika! The sweetboy has like 5 words in English and Pika was one of them. <3 I guess we chose wisely.

It was a very Harry Potter day for Chris.

He got new legos, and a Snitch.

Sam raked in the Harry Potters too.

He got a Snitch like his brother, and some classic HP books homemade by Aunt Erica.

I saw the "Monster Book of Monsters" from a distance and thought Mom had gotten it at Universal.

Nope.

Instead, Erica MADE it! And apparently, Bryce LOVED it, especially when she would take the box and have it growl at her. Later, he walked by it, and growled at it, and giggled. It was fantastic.

I hope I remember how enchanting Bryce was today for a long time. He's really growing into such a neat character. And he plays well with his cousins. The kids all got along so well today.

I couldn't last the entirety of the festivities. At one point, I was talking to my sister in law, and I started to swirl and drift into the couch, I knew I needed to nap and cough. Big coughs. I coughed all the way home, and crashed for a 2 hour nap on the couch.

All the cousins in one place, getting along.

Meanwhile, Eric and Mom helped coordinate this photo for me.

Historic.

After my nap, I went and grabbed the boys.

We got home just enough to do their Kumon homework, then they were ready for dinner.

Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra.

We've started a new tradition, inadvertantly.

A couple years ago, we partied with the fam most of the day, and didn't have dinner, until we discovered we were hungry on the way home from Church. Surprise! The Chinese Buffet was open.

Last year, we went on purpose. This year too.

My friend was telling me that it's become a tradition for Jewish families to go out for Chinese at Christmas, because it's what's open. I just keep thinking of that Christmas Story scene where they end up at the Chinese restaurant. By the time we get to Christmas, we don't feel like cooking much.

This works.

After my big nap, an egg roll tasted great to me. I haven't felt like eating deep fried anything in days.

They had a selfie station at the church for us.

The boys cooperated pretty decently for us.

Jake's pants and Chris's shoes make me smile.

We even had a friend (a tall friend) take a picture take a picture of all of us together.

I never get myself photographed at these things, I'm always behind the camera.

When we got home, Eric put the trains together, and the boys and I got cooking on some of the holiday traditions. Like watching Charlie Brown!

Three sweetboys watch Charlie Brown.

"Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest."

My Mom got us all matching Charlie Brown Jammies last year.

I love them. I'm even wearing snoopy Jamberry wraps on my nails right now since I knew they'd match. I'll be bummed when they outgrow them. I plan on wearing mine for a long time!

Reading the Polar Express together.

This one moment of sweetness was so good, I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped without really looking, as we were all reading, taking turns on different sides of the pages, really making a shared work of it. And it was so nice.

It's this kind of cuddling, quality time, and togetherness that I really love about Christmas Break.

This year, Eric set up the trains upstairs.

And he got them working just before bed for the boys.

We sat in the light of trains and tree just watching them go around and around.

This is one of their favorite Christmas Eve traditions.

They can't wait to see what new train cars and goodies Santa will bring tomorrow!

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The Church borrowed all the boys so they could practice for the Christmas Pageant.

In return for giving them our kids, we get to go shopping for a couple hours, and have lunch.

Best deal ever!

First we went to Target, and stopped at the Starbucks there, and finished up some shopping for the boys. I got a Medicine ball, which I must confess has really been help opening my chest and throat. It's half steamed lemonade and half two teas, Defense with Pineapple and Jade Citrus Mint. And honey. It's not the sweetest beverage they offer, the combo of peppermint and citrus can overwhelm. But it does the trick.

I felt good enough to have a date lunch with my hun.

For lunch, we went to Thai Lanna.

It's a great Thai place on the west side, but since word has gotten out it's good, it's usually crowded when we go by. They don't staff for crowds, so we hadn't been in a while.

But it was dead quiet at 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Luckily for us.

So we got some crab rangoon, which was so yummy. And tried the last Thai curry puff in the place. And of course, my chicken on a stick. Aka chicken satay.

I wish I knew how to make that cucumber sauce they serve. It's like sugar and vinegar and tiny bits of cucumber and red pepper. I love it, I could drink it!

I got this. Eric got his usual Pad Thai so Thai Hot flavored it makes him cry. He likes it that way.

Mine was Thom Yum soup with Pad Thai, was it Thom Thai, or Pad Yum, Thom Pad? I don't remember.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

We'd gotten behind. It's hard for me to want to sugar them up, right before bed. So this time, they ate their dinner, and were all begging for dessert, so I let them eat their chocolates. 5 days worth.

Friday, December 14, 2018

So, let's start off by saying I had no idea I was sick. I had an annoying cough. I'd been cutting back on milk for the last couple days, because I had some drainage, and milk was aggrevating it. But towards the late half of this week, my slightly annoying cough, was growing to more than mildly annoying. I was coughing so hard in the mornings that I peed! I thought only old people did that. I've heard once you have a bunch of kids that happens. But I had 3 c-sections, my bladder should be fine. Except apparently, when I cough that hard. Then Thursday afternoon, I was coughing telling Eric a story and laughing had set me off. I told him it was beginning to hurt my head when I coughed. A lot. Like I might "Blust a burd vessel." I mean of course, if I had aneurysm, that blood vessel would burst. But that's not how it came out. OK, ok, maybe I am feeling little more run down than I thought. I went for a nap. Then I got up, coughed some more, peed some more, so I called and made an appointment with my doctor.
I didn't think I'd need to keep it for myself. Honestly, Jacob coughed once so hard at breakfast, I thought he'd need it. But nah, he was fine after one good go. And he wanted to go to school.

Meanwhile, my appointment was set for 12:30. I sent Jacob off to school with his brothers. And then I met my Dad for a cup of coffee. This was particularly interesting as he was coughing a little, kind of like me. He apologized (just like I have been) for his "mildly annoying cough". He'd been diagnosed with bronchitis two days prior. But he said, he was on antibiotics and fine.
Huh.
Come to think of it...
Uh oh.
I sound a little like that too. I wondered if I might have bronchitis. Maybe I should keep that appointment. Maybe I should get Jacob checked.... I felt fine. I thought to myself. No biggie. My Dad ordered a drink, a Chai Latte. Funny, I never knew he drank those. I got a Medicine Ball from Starbucks. Since I realized I'm feeling funny, I've been disinclined to have super milk and sugary coffee. I didn't want any of that. The Medicine Ball was what I needed. And it was good to talk to my dad. So I thought as I left, I'll keep that appointment, but maybe first pop by the school and check on Jacob. Maybe he'll need to come with me. You know, actually, maybe we both should kidnap Jacob for lunch. I haven't spent enough quality time with him lately. I take the big boys to therapy and out for lunch dates all the time. But I don't take Jacob. Poor kid, I thought. He gets the fuzzy end, being the littlest. I got to feeling quite bad for him.
Eric was on board with kidnapping Jacob with me, just to take him out and give him a little Quality Time. He was working from home. He's been working a gig lately, where he works from home. It's just we can't predict when that will be. We never know when it's going to happen, so we can't plan anything. Anyway, he got all set up and we went to the school.
Eric dropped me off by the entrance, and waited. We didn't think it would take long to grab Jacob. It did though, we caught him just as he was entering the cafeteria. When they brought him to the office, I said "Guess what?! We're kidnapping you for lunch! It's a rainy day, you'll have recess with us. Don't you want to go out for macaroni and cheese or pancakes?" I must've overwhelmed him with my joy, because he was mellow, and quiet. By the time we got to the car, he started to cry.
"I'm gonna miss Choice Time." What?! He didn't want to miss Choice Time. I don't know what that is, is it instead of outdoor recess, is it part of class. We told him we'd bring him back after lunch and recess. Instead, he burst into tears. Not just tears, giant growing snowballs of tears slowly rolling down his face. There were little words. (Note he hasn't been talking about his feelings much either, but we're working on it.) It was pitiful. He told me he wanted to stay and do Choice Time. He wanted to have lunch with his friends. I thought, Oh, OK, you tell me a problem, this is one we can fix. OK, we can do that. Eric said, I'll go park the car. I turn back around and take Jacob sobbing back into school. I explain to the gals, that he didn't want to leave. So the second he's back, I look around, and he has left me, and run for the cafeteria. He didn't even want us to stay. Shocked I turned and left. I kind of felt like crying. I couldn't believe he didn't want to have lunch with us, that he'd rather eat at school. That's the first time I've ever had a kid do that. He really wanted to be at school.

So I left.

I left my baby at school, and went to have a lunch date with my hubby. It made me kind of sad. He preferred school to me. We'd gotten such a good motivation for pancakes thinking about what Jacob would want, we decided to take ourselves to IHOP.

I opted to go for the dairy. After all, I'm not very sick, just got a little drainage.

Plus, green grinch cocoa!

Well, they were out of green whip cream, probably better for my colon after all, so I got white whip with red heart candies and peppermint cocoa. It was So Good!

My handsome date.

Each of us got omelettes with a side of pancakes.

I was STUFFED!

My Cinnamon stack of pancakes was Awesome.

We drowned our left out sorrows in pancakes and omelettes, and it was actually very nice.

So then I went to the doctor. Turns out she didn't like what she saw.

She wasn't as vocal about grossness, Dr. Cooper would've said Eww, Gross. He and I have that repoire. Dr. Wright not so much. But when I asked if it was gross and disgusting in my throat, she bobbed her head yes. And then she diagnosed me.

With Walking Pneumonia.

Walking Pneumonia.

Have you heard of it? I have. I had one friend who got it a few years back. She was "lucky", she never got hospitalized, but she was miserable for weeks. And she had littles.

But for me, it's Birthday season, and Christmas!

I can't be Sick!

With Walking Pneumonia.

OK, fine. Give me Drugs. I openly admitted I was "drug seeking". I know there's a negative connotation with that, but I didn't care. I am not going to be sick at Christmas. I have 3 Sweetboys to Spoil! I'm not cancelling birthday parties for my own sickness.

She put my on a Z pack, azithromycin. I came home for drugs and nap, after I had some difficulty at the drug store, Turns out after much brouhaha, I was in the insurance company as a male. And at the drug store as a female. Eric got it worked out for me, and picked me up my drugs. I took a booster double dose of the Z pack with dinner. We took the kids out, to the Kumon Center for Reading Night. You'd think Eric and I would have gone on a date. Nope. My energy was gone, and now I knew why. But once I got back in the car to go get said yahoos, I got an idea.

As my friend Marta says, "Make Every Trip Count."

So while we were out and about, we took the scenic route home, and stopped in town to see some Christmas Lights. We drove through a friend's neighborhood.

We stopped at the Town Hall Light Show.

I was glad to see a proper show with the boys.

We found the lights at Arbuckle.

Lucky for us, it's kind of pain to get to, so there wasn't a crowd.

So we got the kids out real quick for a photo op.

That was fun.

And when I got home, I was pooped. I read up on Walking Pneumonia. It's not like the pneumonia that people die of. It's obnoxious and rude, and interferes with people's holiday social schedules, but I'm not going to the hospital. Drugs should help. It's a milder form. Still obnoxious though. And I'm already tired of springing leaks every time I cough. I'm just gonna feel kind of gross for a while.

If you hear my coughing up a lung or running to the bathroom while coughing, don't worry.

I'm OK.

I just have Wonky Pneumonia.

These two oils: Peppermint and RC have brought me 8 tons of Supportive Relief tonight.

And on that note, I have babbled enough and need to take my pneumotic self to bed.